Friday, May 21, 2010

worlds within worlds (a pictorial essay)


busy with the day i dash past this bush in my yard. passed it a hundred times before never taking notice, at best peripheral to my world, this world of its own.

but today i noticed it because its blooming, and my eyes are held captive by it's beauty.



so i come a little closer to get a better look.
our worlds converging as never before.






now my heart beats faster as i begin to perceive the breath and depth of its beauty.

drawn onward i go closer...


my face is practically inside the blossoms now, this buffet for the bees, yes worlds within worlds silently we pass by, yet i am drawn closer and to my great surprise...


behind the blossoms a whole other world within a world within a world to see, flightless baby birds waiting for mom. not a sound, barely a movement, a bundle of feathers, in a nest of twigs and scraps of plastic netting and other human debris re-cycled and re-used by birds; and we think we are so clever.
worlds within worlds,
if only we will see.


©2010 halley low

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

the illusion of evil

“for what is evil but good tortured by its own hunger and thirst? verily when good is hungry it seeks food even in dark caves, and when it thirsts it drinks even of dead waters.” - kahlil gibran


evil is an illusion. by that I do not mean that evil is not a reality in our world. illusions are real, though they are not true. an example - i am lost in the desert and see a mirage; the mirage is real yet the reality I perceive is not true. evil is essentially a lie, that is something not true - an illusion. sin is believing the lie and what follows naturally from that belief is living in the lie. the lie is that there is no God, no purpose, no hope - life is only futility. once we start to believe the lie fear takes over. thus pride comes, the first born of fear, and the progenitor of all that is oppressive and divisive in our world; “i" becomes the center of the universe from which all greed and malice flows from the human heart and infects the world.

let me give a more concrete historical example of what i mean. apartheid was the policy of the south african government for decades. apartheid was based on a lie, that is the lie that one race is superior to another. that one lie gave birth to a whole system of oppression and violence. evil replaced the truth with a lie and that illusion created a very real world of suffering.

essentially evil is the lie that tells us we are not good, not worthy of human dignity or respect. “and God saw everything that was created, and behold it was very good.” (Genesis 1:31) or in the words of Desmond Tutu evil is the lie that “tells a child of God that they are not a child of God.” without hope or purpose we live in fear; feeling lost and alone we seek affirmation of ourselves within ourselves, and so our hunger for the light only finds darkness, and our thirst for communion is drowned in the dead waters of self-centeredness.

the illusion of evil (that which is false) can only be overcome by the truth. coming to know the truth in a world full of evil is not always easy. the lies that society drums into our heads (racism, sexism, homophobia, etc.) are hard to dislodge and often difficult for us to recognize as living within us. the lies we tell ourselves (grandiosity, arrogance, lust, etc.) are equally difficult to recognize and dislodge. often our personal lies are deeply intertwined in our social lies, one feeding off and re-enforcing the other. but we are not lost, there is true and real hope for us to be free.

in the gospel of john we are told that Jesus "is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world". sin is believing the lie and Jesus takes it away by shining forth the truth of God. we are not lost and alone, God is ever-present calling us to turn from the lie and to live in Him. God loves the whole of creation and does not abandon us to our illusions, "indeed God did not send the Son into the world to condemn it but in order that the world be healed through Him." by living in Christ we are freed from the power of the illusion. the more we turn from the lie of self-centeredness toward the truth of God's love manifest in the person of Jesus Christ the more sane living becomes possible in a crazy world. for what is sane living but to be free to be who we are - children of God - called to love and live in harmony with all so that the truth and beauty of God will shine through God's creation, for "what has come into being in Him is life, and the life is the light of all people."

©2010 halley low

Thursday, May 13, 2010

an ecological litany

preface
below is a christian prayer for individual or group devotion. the focus is on thanking God for the gift of creation (of which we are a part), and a recognition of our personal/collective ecological sins, with a call for repentance and Divine aid. i wrote this litany for a recent ecumenical ecological prayer service entitled "whose earth is it anyway: a prayerful response" which was a follow up to a presentation i gave on the biblical theology of ecology by the same name. anyone interested in having me come to your church or organization to give the presentation "whose earth is it anyway:a biblical theology of ecology" please email me. as is usual with litanies it is formatted in a call and response style (V stands for verse and R for response). when recited with intention i think it is a powerful prayer. may we walk together with God and one another in loving reconciliation, amen.


an ecological litany

V: Lord God, Maker of heaven and earth, we marvel at the wonder of Your works giving glory to Your Holy Name. Truly You are Father of all, we thank you for Your enduring love, which like a mother holding her child to her breast gives life and nourishment to the whole of Your creation.
R: Thank you God for the gift of life, and the gift of this earth, and the gift of Your abiding Presence.

V: Lord, we remember our sins against You and Your earth.
R: Lord have mercy, and heal our broken ways.
V: Lord, we admit our forgetfulness in our duty to care for Your creation.
R: Lord have mercy, and heal us Your broken image.
V: Lord, for all the times we have put our selfish pursuits before the good of the whole.
R: Lord have mercy, and heal our broken souls.
V: Lord, we remember those who are hungry and homeless, both human and animal, because of our greed and wantonness.
R: Lord have mercy, and heal our broken priorities.
V: Lord, for the times we have turned from Your call and hardened our hearts of stone.
R: Lord have mercy, and heal our broken hearts of stone.

V: We come before you in sorrow for our sins, in gratitude for your compassion, and in hope for new life, through Your love poured out upon the earth in the person of Jesus Christ.
R: renewing our commitment to love and serve You by loving and serving one another and the whole of Your creation, for Your glory and our salvation; we ask this in the name of Jesus our Lord and Savior and by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.


copyright halley low 2010

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

the joy of coffee

i love coffee in the morning. the aroma of coffee brewing invites me out of bed. i savor the first sip, in an instant i am awake, and by the end of the cup i'm ready for action. so i got to thinking about coffee and how it makes a good metaphor for life.

every morning when my eyes first open i am invited by life to enter a new day. i savor those quiet moments of early morning. by the end of that time i am ready for action. but the metaphor goes deeper.

life, like coffee, can be rich and deep in flavor. just as at times it can be bitter, even burnt. life, like coffee, can be sweetened, only the sugar of life comes from the depth of our relationships. if life gets too heavy we can lighten it up with a little cream, that is the cream of prayer, or the half & half of laughter, or the milk of human kindness. and sometimes when the world is too much with us life can become jittery, yet in those jittery moments life can also offer us calm by opening opportunities for solitude and communion.

life always invites us to go deeper, kind of like how sharing coffee with friends can open us to deeper conversations. it's no wonder that God beckons us to always "choose life" (deuteronnomy 30:19). which brings me to another comparison, life like coffee is a gift from God; savor the gift in gratitude, and share it in love.


©2010 halley low

Thursday, May 6, 2010

what i feel is not who i am

as human beings we are subject to a vast array of feelings. often our feelings are not completely under our conscious control. at one moment i may be perfectly happy as i am walking down the street in the bright sunlight. then suddenly that feeling may give way to a somber moment, and i may sink down into sadness. a moment later i may realize that i was just feeling happy as a lark and wonder to myself "why am i sad now".

feelings are like a compass, pointing us to what's going on inside us. feelings aren't good or bad in a moral sense, but they are subject to change, often without apparent cause or reason, and that is, for the most part, perfectly normal. if we are willing to ponder a little deeper usually we can gain understanding for the shift in mood. other times it may remain a mystery, and we might decide to consciously change gears to a more upbeat emotion (if possible), or allow the flood of negative feeling to wash over and take us to a place we need to be in that moment.

what's really important is to try to remember that whatever one is feeling at any given point in time is just that -- what you are feeling, and is not the defining factor of who you are. just because you are feeling bad doesn't make you bad anymore then feeling good makes you good. they are all just feelings, they have a purpose, or at least a cause, which the feeling itself may be trying to get one in touch with.

whatever the case, to borrow a popular line from the 12 step programs, "feelings aren't facts". that is a really important point to remember, because sometimes when we confuse our feelings for facts we can get really messed up thinking our feelings are who we are. feelings come and go, they can change as often, and suddenly, as some adolescent girls change their hairstyles. who we really are, on the deepest and truest level, never changes. because at the core we are all human beings equal to one another in dignity, and that is because the core of our being rests in the fact that we are all children of the one and same God. that is the fact of our existence. our feelings open us to exploring the fact of who we are, and experiencing the full range of expression that is real life, but our feelings don't define who we are.

sometimes when we are feeling "down" we might start putting ourselves "down", remembering who we really are can put things back in proper perspective. likewise, if we are caught up in very "high" feelings we may get a bit "puffed up", and again remembering the fact of who we really are can help us come down off our "high horse". feelings are an important way of getting in touch with where we are at and where we are going. however, they should never be allowed to dictate our sense of worth, because our worth is rooted in the fact of who we are, not what we feel. separating fact from feeling is a useful way to saner and more truthful living.

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

places i have been, places i am going too...

they say "home is where the heart is", and as one who has done my share of moving over the years, i can attest to the truth of that statement. nevertheless, moving to a new locale is always an encounter with loss and anticipation.

living in one place for a while means having built connections and collected memories. for instance, now that i face yet another move, i think about the harbor park where i walk my dog every morning. i treasure those quiet moments: the cool bay breeze, the tree lined paths, the sea gulls and variety of other water fowl. i have also enjoyed the occasional late afternoon saunter down to the harbor, sitting by the water to read or pray. i have developed a connection to that park, and have collected many fond memories.

and while i am experiencing this sense of loss -- this mild anxiety about the closing of yet another chapter of my life, i also feel the anxiety of anticipation, wondering what lies ahead. i am at once excited and apprehensive about discovering a whole new world populated with people i have yet to know, and places i have yet to explore. weighing the trade off of beaches for waterfalls; the familiar southern horizon of sun and sky now to be dominated by hazy blue mountains; the spacious house i presently dwell in to be replaced by a three bedroom apartment, the dimensions of which i have yet to even see.

of course there is the loss of people i have come to know during my daily walks along main street, the parishioners with whom i have developed a particularly special bond, as well as long established friendships which will undoubtedly endure. yet the immediacy of physical presence will give way to the immediacy of telephone and internet. not knowing a soul where i am going, nor sure of how i will be received, also adds to the tension of loss and anticipation.

but in all this i do know the essential truth of the opening statement - "home is where the heart is". home isn't a place, not a house, not a town. home is the sense of rootedness in my origins, the feeling of centeredness within my own person, and the knowledge of the love of God which keeps me sane and secure throughout the ever-shifting sands of time. though the sense of loss and the anticipation of the unknown are real and present, i need not be overwhelmed or overanxious for these feelings will indeed pass as i inevitably ease into the newness. i have learned that home travels with me wherever i go. for who i was remains with me; who i am perseveres; and who i will be is a miracle waiting to unfold.